The meaning and origin of the expression: We know where you live

We know where you live

What's the origin of the phrase 'We know where you live'?

This phrase has been current in the UK since the early 1990s. Of course, there's more to this than the literal meaning of the words. What's implied is that the aggressors have the information to locate their victim at home and intend to seek them out there and attack them.

This piece from The Times, June 1992 reported death threats to Dessa Trevisan their correspondent in Belgrade and included this threat made by 'unidentified men', outside Belgrade's International Press Centre:

"We know where you live. We will break down your door and come to finish you."

In the King James Version of the Bible, Revelations 2:13, there is the line:

'I know thy works, and where thou dwellest'

The 'we know where you live' thugs aren't likely to be Biblical scholars though and that's hardly likely to be the source of the recent phrase.